Before the Patriots made Thomas one of their major offseason free-agent acquisitions for 2007, he spent seven years with the Baltimore Ravens. He played under Rex Ryan, now the New York Jets' head coach.

"It's funny," Scott said. "I was hanging with Adalius Thomas for Super Bowl weekend. We're buddies from back in the day. He made it public that he's expressed in interest in joining Rex. I think some of his better years of his career have been a part of the Ravens' defense and under Rex Ryan's tutelage. It'll be exciting."

Thomas' time with the Patriots has been disappointing. He fell out of favor with Patriots coach Bill Belichick and was benched twice last year.

Thomas' sack numbers steadily climbed over his last three seasons with Baltimore. He collected eight, nine and a career-high 11. Since he joined the Patriots he has recorded 6.5, five and three last year.

Ryan playfully shot down a question about Thomas when asked Saturday at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis. But Ryan did explain why it's important for a new coach to collect former players, as he did last year with Scott, safety Jim Leonhard and defensive end Marques Douglas.

"That's big," Ryan said. "Any coach that gets a job will want to bring people in that he's familiar with. These are guys that the rest of the team is going to look at. You better make sure you bring the right guys in from a work-ethic standpoint, from the type of study habits and all that. They're teammates are going to be watching them."

SPONSORED HEADLINES

Comments

You must be signed in to post a comment

Need an account?

Already have an account?

You are fully responsible for the content you post. Content that includes profanity, personal attacks or antisocial behavior (such as "spamming" or "trolling"), or other inappropriate content or material will be removed. We reserve the right to block any user who violates our terms of use, including removing all content posted by that user.